Remnants of our love
by spiralnebulaM31
Summary: After another twisted game of fate, Robin finds himself at a hospiral in New York City, waiting for news about the Dark One and thinking of the love he lost. How did he end up having her photo on his new phone? Outlaw Queen. Spoilers up to 4x17.


Robin sits heavily on a chair in the hospital's waiting room.

He closes his eyes and lets his head fall, too many thoughts swirling in his head.

It's not the first time he's been in a hospital of the modern world. He remembers running into Storybrooke's hospital with a panicked little John, bitten by a flying monkey. That was before he went to the farm house to look for the Wicked Witch. It was before he met his soulmate for that fateful second time.

Regina.

He opens his eyes and curses himself and his thoughts for taking that direction. How could a hospital have him thinking about her?

That's not actually a difficult question. Thoughts of her haven't stopped surrounding him since the first moment he met her in the Enchanted Forest. That infuriatingly stubborn and amazing woman had occupied his mind and distracted his everyday life just by her presence. Meeting her again for a second time, being inexplicably drawn to her… It was magic.

The strangest thing was that she had come to feel the same way about him. All those late night talks in the castle, all the moments she opened herself up to him, always denying it the next day, they all led to that powerful magic which kept them leaning towards each other in whatever world they found themselves into.

Until he had to leave.

He left a piece of himself with her, a piece of his heart he is never going to find again. Not without her in his life.

_Hospitals aren't supposed to make you feel better_, he decides.

His train of thought brings him back to the reason he's here for. The Dark One.

He could just let him die in Baelfire's apartment, but that's not the person he is. He's got to show his son who he really is, he's got to set an example for him and let him know how to be righteous and help those in need. He's done mistakes in the past, but he had to do the right thing now.

In the back of his mind there's another thing he knows he has to do eventually, something that goes against the emotions that take over his heart, but he doesn't want to think about that at the moment.

He thinks of Regina instead. Her face comes to his mind again. Instinctively, he takes his phone out of his pocket. The phone she gave him before they parted ways forever.

_He stood right behind her while she was pressing the buttons quickly, holding a new phone in one hand and her own phone on the other._

_"__Will you tell me what you're doing?"_

_Regina jumped at the sound of his voice disturbing the quietness that had fallen in her office the last few minutes. She turned her head slightly, but before she could meet his eyes, she was looking at the phones again, ignoring the tears that were blurring her vision._

_"__Regina?" Robin said softly, his breath against the back of her neck sending shivers down her spine._

_Robin was desperate for more looks, more touches, more kisses between them. If they had to be separated, they could at least cherish the few minutes they still had left together. But Regina didn't seem to be able to look at him and it made him angry at himself for putting her in so much pain, angry at himself for always trying to be a good man._

No, what you're doing this time is right._ A voice said inside his head and he couldn't help but believe it. He was doing this for Roland and also for Marian. Regina understood. She had come a long way since they first met and he couldn't be prouder of her. Every day was a new step for her. Every single day, even if she didn't believe it. He wanted to be there to show her how _good_ she was, but he couldn't._

_His own eyes filled with tears and he was about to take a step back from her when she turned around and threw herself onto him. Her hands were still clutching the phones when they circled his waist and she held him tightly. He moved his arms around her and felt her head dropping on his chest and staying there while silent sobs shook her whole body._

_They remained like that, standing in the place they had exchanged sweet and passionate kisses and had given each other promises of something more, something they could come back to later and feel complete._

_Regina was the one who broke their embrace when she looked up at him with a sad smile. His tear-struck face was like a blow in her heart that hurt her even more._

_His hands reached her cheeks and he cradled her face, brushing the remaining tears away with his thumbs._

_They both left a strangled breath at the same time, never leaving each other's eyes._

_"__I just want to send the contacts you might need from my phone to this one." Regina said in a low shaky voice._

_Robin looked at her confused._

_She freed his waist, showing the phones she was still holding._

_"__Aaah" he nodded in understanding. "Wouldn't it be easier if we wrote them down on paper?"_

_"__This is quicker." She answered and resumed the task of copying the contacts._

_She didn't turn around, but remained beside him instead._

_He looked over her shoulder._

_"__Why does this one have a picture?" He asked her curiously, pointing to a contact named 'Granny's Takeout'._

_To Robin's surprise, Regina chuckled._

_He was unable to not smile at the way her eyes shined for a moment._

_"__It was Henry's idea. Once he discovered that we could add tiny icons to the contacts he insisted on taking a new one every time his favorite meal changed. It's been years and I thought he had forgotten about it until he came to my vault a few days ago, eating his new favorite burger and grinning at me."_

_Regina glanced up at him and her heart swelled at the adoration in his eyes. That man, her soulmate, had entered her life, broke down her walls and the remnants of their moments together would stay carved in her mind forever. She could feel their connection stronger than ever. He might have been a thief and also her love, but he was a father first and that was a look that told her he got it, he got that aspect of her life as well. And that's why she knew what they were going to do was right. They had to make it right for his son._

_He buried a hand in her hair and massaged her scalp. Regina closed her eyes and leaned into his touch._

_"__Do you think I could take a photo of you and put it next to your name on the phone?"_

_His voice sounded to her like it was coming from a dreamland far away as she let herself relax with his touch._

_Once his words registered on her brain, her eyes opened and she raised her eyebrows at him._

_"__Take a photo of this?" She gestured to her face, making a grimace._

_"__What do you mean? You're beautiful!" Robin frowned at her surprised expression._

_"__Robin, I was crying for twenty minutes. I probably look like hell."_

_Robin reached for her waist and pulled her to him._

_"__You're stunning. Stunning in every way." He whispered in her hair. "But you can go and freshen up if you really need to." He added and smirked at her annoyed glare._

_Their eyes widened simultaneously and they looked away. That was too normal; it was just them spending time together and they couldn't keep behaving that way. They would never see each other again. There was no point._

_"__Let's go. They're waiting for us at your camp." She reminded him and headed for the door._

_He followed her reluctantly._

_A few minutes later they were outside. She took his hand and led him to an alley behind her office._

_"__What are we doing here?"_

_She smiled at him that sad smile and gave him the phone –his phone._

_"__You can take a photo of me here."_

_She stood in front of a certain spot where no buildings could be seen and the sky was the only background._

_He saw her tearing up again as she handed him the phone and felt a sting to his heart, like someone was squeezing it from the inside._

_He cupped her cheek and made her look at him. "Give me that lovely smile of yours, beautiful."_

_She nodded weakly and took a deep breath. She gracefully wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and she tried, she really tried for him, thinking that she didn't want him to remember her crying desperately; knowing that he would remember her like that anyway._

He doesn't know much about technology yet, but he has done this dozens of times in the last couple of days. He unlocks the screen, looks for her name and taps on it. The number he has already memorized shows up and her face is smiling at him from the screen. He wonders how it's possible for the ache in his heart to increase.

He's worried about her. He misses her terribly, but he's also worried. She wouldn't have given him those keys if she knew Gold would be out of Storybrooke, too. Something must have happened and he can't push away the burning feeling in his gut that tells him nothing is right any more.

He wants to call her, oh how he wants to call her. It's the fourth time since the Dark One has collapsed in Bealfire's apartment that his finger is hovering above the "Call" button. He's realized that she doesn't have this phone number. She can't call him if she wants to, if she needs him. He longs to hear her voice, but most of all he has to make sure she is with Henry and they're alright.

"Sir? Your friend's awake."

The nurse's voice breaks the spell. He looks up at her and his finger moves from the button, but he glances back on the screen for a few moments. He decides to call her after he talks to Gold.

He stands up, following the nurse with heavy footsteps, his mind in a haze of dark eyes smiling back at him and an essence of her forehead touching his.

A few hours later, in a place Robin can never reach again, Regina gets out of her car and walks towards the town line.

Her eyes sting, but they're dry. She thinks she has no more tears left in her tonight.

Her entire body is weak. She feels numb. The smell of the forest surrounds her and it makes everything even worse.

Henry and Emma tried to cheer her up earlier –she rolls her eyes at the memory, because they all knew it was too soon for any attempt at that to work– and not even the discovery of hundreds of blank storybooks was enough to take her thoughts away from him.

She managed to keep her pain inside until Henry went to bed.

She almost cried herself to sleep, but the sound of her own hands tearing page 23 echoed in her head.

She felt her heart break at the lost hope he had brought into her life, the hope that fate has taken away from her again.

She had to look for the shattered pieces.

Her pace is quickening when one of the pieces comes to sight.

She continues looking until she retrieves all the pieces. She traces his face on the paper with her finger and imagines his strong hands holding her, his kind eyes boring into her soul. She can still taste his warm lips and hear him whispering "I…".

She knew. They both know.

She looks up, willing herself not to cry again, and sees thousands of stars decorating the dark sky of Storybrooke.

It's beautiful. She knows they won't be able to see the stars in the city and a new kind of sadness envelopes her. She's aching for him, for his loneliness in the big foreign city he has sent him to.

_At least he's with Roland_, she thinks and, holding the pieces of page 23 like a treasure, she walks slowly back to her car to get home to Henry.

* * *

**A/N: I just couldn't get this out of my mind until I wrote it. This is my first Outlaw Queen story and I'm quite nervous about it. Thanks for reading and if you want to, let me know what you think :)**


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